More Alice Tags!

Hey, all you crafters out there that participated in the
Alice tag book swap, I have made some new ones.
If you are interested in swapping a couple more tags,
let me know I have 3 pairs to swap. I will be sending
two new ones to Karla over at karlascottage.typepad.com
for her very hard work in putting together these wonderful
little tag books. She made about 8o covers and put at
least that many together, then mailed them out to everyone.
She is a jewel.

I just got kind of caught up in it all and just wanted to make
more tags for my own book. I happen to have a ver very old
Alice in wonderland book that was my mother's when she was
a young girl.
It is so worn, with an insect hole in the back that bore right into
many pages. I love how differently it is illustrated. (true victorian
fashion) with the colors all being Lavender and violet hues.
The other little circles come from a sheet I bought digitally from
Petite Paperie in their Etsy shop. They are wonderful, so I had
to do something with them as well.
The bottom picture is the Tag book I recieved from
Karla and I have added the extra tags that I made.
If you are interested in swapping two more, just let me know
via a comment here. You can also visit my other creative blog, by clicking
on the button at the top. I am posting this in both places.

Tiffany's Apron

I made this apron for my beautiful daughter-in-law for her birthday.
This one does not go into the Etsy shop. I was so excited to give it to her.
It is hard to see, but at the top of the bib, there is an antique doily. Her smile
says it all. Love you Tiffany and Happy Birthday.

Who will swap with me for May Day?

I wanted to do a swap with someone for
May Day. I came back from my daughters
home in logan, Utah where she just had
her first baby. I was gone for quite a while,
and I had not been posting or visiting blogs.
I found everyone was swapping. I was not
able to get in on some of these swaps, so I
decided to do one of my own. I decided to
fill up this cute ceramic cottage instead of
a petite basket. This one has so many surprizes.
But I am selfish, and don't want to just give it
away this time. I want a great little vintage
goodie basket myself. So I am petitioning all of
lovely blogging friends who have not participated
in a swap for may day yet. Leave me a comment
if you wish to participate and if I get a few by
Saturday, April 24th, I will draw, and if I just get a
couple of responses, I will just pick. I am confident
that I will find someone soon, who has some cool
things to send me. Included are: vintage store stock
items from Germany, a doily with ribbon rose in the
middle, Antique buttons, old kilt pin, old fan, velvet
ric rac, soap from bath and body works. handmade
paper medallion with bird, and more, not to mention
the cute ceramic cottage with lid.

It is all wrapped up with celophane and a pretty ribbon
Won't you swap with me?

My new Venture!

I have been having lots of fun with this new found craft. I have been remaking jewelry into fun shabby vintage look long chokers. I have crafted about 12 of these necklaces in the last couple of weeks. I have been having so much fun gathering old pieces including 1 leftover earring, pendants, charms etc. I lay it all out and rework chains and then I will do some beading too. I can't get enough of it. I have had fun looking in antique and thrift shops for old pieces of jewelry, and have come up with some really neat looking stuff to keep, give as gifts and list in my Etsy shop. I would love to hear some feedback on this stuff. I don't know if my pricing is good, but I kind of went by the time put in, how old some pieces were, and the amount of findings I had into them also. I might be changing the pricing a bit. I will see.
These first two pieces are the ones I will keep. Both of them have sentimental value in them.

Some Thrift store treasures

While in Utah, I was able to go to 3 different thrift stores. Here are some of the items I found
1) a sweet clock, I may change it up a bit,
2) a cute ceramic vase. (same on both sides)
3) an old book that I will use the pages out of for paper crafts
4) inside the old book this cool quote about MUSIC!

I found other things, but these were the most significant

Happy Easter Sunday!

When I was in Utah this past week, I
stayed at my friend Carla Morris' home.
She had Easter bunnies at every turn.  I
really got into the Easter mood with
staying there. She was such a lovely
hostess, I felt like I was in a wonderful bed
and Breakfast. Thanks so much to Carla!
Here are some of her bunnies.  
 

Sweet little half apron

I decided to finish up a little apron for my 
Etsy Shop.  I am so glad that aprons are
making a comeback.  I wear them a lot more 
in my kitchen.  But I think many are wearing
them now when they craft too. 

Alice tag book

The movie is out. I have not seen it, preparing for the tag book swap made me really reflect on Alice in Wonderland. I was so tickled to get this in the mail. It came way before I thought it would. I can just about imagine the amount of work that went
into these lovely little gems that Karla did up for everyone who participated.

Not only did I get the book, but this lovely pen came with it. It truly goes with the Mad Hatter Tea that took place in the Story.

Karla made about 80 covers with little doors that opened, and she did up these little bottles too. It all came wrapped in a page from the book. So neat! I am so lucky. I feel like I have been to Wonderland myself. I will cherish this for years to come.

Don't you love it?

Easter time

This is my new Spring and Easter centerpiece. I used my ceramic basket, that I made many years ago. It has six sides with a lovely
floral motif on each panel. The eggs are really special. They are actually real live chicken eggs, collected just a couple of mornings before. I love the different colored ones. I got a carton of 18 from a friend who has chickens. They probably gather about 6 dozen per day. I learned some interesting facts about different colored chicken eggs the other day. Different chickens lay different eggs. The speckled ones are my favorites. There were some that were plain dk. brown and look just like they were dyed. I found out that the chickens secreet a kind of dye as they are laying them. Hence the speckles and the dark brown on some of them. These other greenish ones are from a different kind of chicken.

My French Country Style

These crazy old spoons needed a place to hang out.
So I designed this little spoon holder and had a friend cut it out and put it together.

This hangs in my kitchen. It's a paper collage that says French Kitchen and I think you will agree it looks and feels like something you might see in a little 'French Bistro.' It is made from many different patterned papers, French ephemera and then I hand wrote out the words and cut it out. I also stamped paper paint in the two corners. Then the double mat was painted, then crackled to get that worn look. I never get tired of looking at this.

I did this for our guest room. Just thought it might help anyone who sleeps in there to truly have 'Sweet Dreams.'
and the one below hangs in my pantry. It is a board I had that I just thought would be fun to decoupage up with french ephemera, and more patterned paper. In the other corner it has the word pantry on it.

My own Etsy Shop! This is cool!

I just created my own Etsy shop, and I am really excited about it. I have 1 item listed and will list more, but I am just happy that I figured out how to get my pictures uploaded and I will be posting a lot more things. This should be fun!

New Vintage for my birthday.

I had this posted before, and then deleted it, because it was mixed up with some other posts. I recieved this box full of goodies from my good friend Camille

Don't you just love this stuff. I sure do. From the Vintage buttons on original card, to the old bottle with the piece of antique lace wrapped around the spool. She sure knows what I like and I am sure it is the things she likes too. Thanks so much Camille.

Recycled Apron

Thought I would like to post this vintage recycled apron I made yesterday.
While looking in my fabric stash. I found this old jumper I use to wear in the 90's.
I took off the back basically, and cut sashes from the back piece. Then I cut off the bottom, moved it up and added this lovely old vintage
doile to the bib. Since there were already button holes, I just decided to do a faux buttoned neck band. Added a cute pocket and I think it turned out pretty cool. What do you think. I will be making many more aprons, each one of a kind with old vintage doilies attached for my new Etsy shop that I will be getting up soon. What do you all think of the doile apron? I believe in the three R's. . .Recycle-Redo-Reuse!